Don’t Miss the Opportunity in Your Chair

I have worked as an eye care practitioner at a large OD/MD practice, McFarland Eye Care, which has five clinics that serve Central Arkansas for the last four years. While it is a high-volume medical practice including cataracts, oculoplastics, and LASIK, my colleagues and I also perform routine examinations for glasses and contact lenses. Routine examinations compose about 35% of my patient appointments, and one-third of those patients are contact lens wearers. A large portion of my new lens fits include daily disposables, although I still have quite a few established patients in 2-week or monthly lenses.

At the time of this writing, I am about to move to an independent dry eye clinic called Noh Eyes in which I will be a partner with one other practitioner, and we’ll have one technician and two part-time staff members. We will be growing the practice’s patient base, and although routine examinations will not be our primary focus, I will continue providing this service because I love it. I find joy in building relationships with patients year after year, and I feel I can make a huge difference in their quality of life with glasses and contacts.

Over the years, I have worked to increase contact lens growth by incorporating consistent education into my patient interactions, whether on new lens technology or through addressing their concerns. I have found that simply raising the topic of contact lenses often leads to a deeper discussion about their convenience and improved materials and optics, and it frequently initiates a lens consultation and purchase. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much this approach fosters patient loyalty and drives business growth.

Creating Opportunities Through Everyday Conversations

For me, the key to expanding contact lens usage has been to simply raise the topic with patients while they are already in the exam chair. I admit, this doesn’t happen with every patient—making these discussions part of my routine was an adjustment in mindset and workflow for me, as we practitioners get stuck in our ways. I try to tailor my educational approach to each person to address their needs, complaints, and misconceptions (see the sidebar, Educating Overlooked Patient Populations.) For example, some patients believe that because they wear glasses, they cannot also wear contacts; others have been told that because they have astigmatism, they aren’t candidates for contact lenses; and I still get patients who have been wearing the same lenses for a decade or two and are unaware of the incredible advancements in lens technology.

I also educate my staff to be another touch point for patients to learn about the option of contact lenses. Whether on the phone, at the front desk, or during the work up, we use these opportunities to introduce premium lenses or reintroduce contacts to patients who have outdated prescriptions or negative past experiences.

Leveraging Technology and Pricing in Lens Conversions

Although my team and I never rush patients to decide about contact lenses, we do what we can to keep these purchases in-house. We enroll all current and potential contact lens patients in our EMR’s lens ordering system, which will text or e-mail them a link to purchase the prescribed lens and have it shipped to their door. It can also send them reminders about their next visit. We encourage patients to buy annual quantities of lenses so that their orders are timed with their yearly evaluation, but this isn’t feasible for everyone.

As I mentioned previously, I promote daily disposable lenses for most patients and position this option as the healthiest one for patients’ eyes, but I still have those who prefer a monthly or 2-week lens for various reasons. I do my best to educate these patients on all the available options, including dailies and even 7-day lenses to optimize their ocular health. All the contact lenses I recommend currently are advanced-technology models that contain a high water content and high oxygen permeability.

As far as pricing contact lens fits and evaluations, we have used a tiered pricing model that I will likely continue using as I build the contact lens business at my new office. We’ll have one price for spherical soft contact lenses, and a different fee for multifocal and toric fits. However, while my partner and I establish this new business, we’ll request payment at the time of service rather than accepting reimbursement from vision plans.

The Opportunity is Right in Front of You

In addition to doctor-patient conversations, it’s beneficial to train your staff to ask patients about their contact lens interest and/or wearing habits. Getting staff excited and motivated to talk about all the new offerings in contact lens technology is very helpful in their patient interactions.

But, my biggest piece of advice to colleagues who are looking to educate their patients about trying contacts is to use your chair time wisely. We all have potential contact lens patients sitting in our chairs; we just need to engage with them. I recommend establishing a workflow where you can allow for these conversations to take place during every patient examination.